Medical news today has an excellent article up regarding the effects on embryonic cells high blood glucose has which affects pregnant women.

What I’m curious is how this (or if) can turn into possible gestational diabetes in women? Studies like this just put the spotlight even more on regulated glucose levels, especially if its affecting the development of fetus’.

“Over the past several years, Joslin Investigator Mary R. Loeken, Ph.D., and her colleagues at Joslin Diabetes Center have unlocked several mysteries behind what puts women with diabetes more at risk of having a child with birth defects. Even though those risks have decreased significantly over the years, thanks in part to advancements at Joslin, women with diabetes still are two to five times more likely than the general population to have a baby with birth defects, especially of the heart and spinal cord, organs that form within the first few weeks of pregnancy.”

They discovered the protein called glucose transporter 2 (Glut2) enabled high amounts of glucose to be easily transfered into embryonic cells which affects the critical early development stages of fetus’

“Now, in this latest study done in mice, Dr. Loeken and her colleagues have discovered that the protein called glucose transporter 2 (Glut2) makes it possible for the high concentrations of glucose to get into the embryonic cells efficiently when the mother’s blood glucose concentrations are high. Also involved in the study was Rulin Li, Ph.D., a former postdoctoral fellow at Joslin. The study, supported by the National Institutes of Health, will appear in the March print edition of Diabetologia and was published online by the journal.”

They also found that those without the Glut2 gene were protected against deformation in diabetic pregnancies:

“Using mice that lacked Glut2 genes, which were developed by one of the study’s co-authors, Bernard Thorens, Ph.D., of the Center for Integrated Genomics at the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, Joslin researchers found that only embryos carrying normal Glut2 genes developed malformations when the mothers were diabetic, whereas embryos that lacked Glut2 genes were protected from malformations during diabetic pregnancy. “This shows that the high-transport Glut2 transporter was responsible for getting higher concentrations of glucose in the cell and causing the malformations.” The embryos were examined on the 10th day of gestation. The time span in the mice, Dr. Loeken explained, is comparable to about the fourth or fifth weeks of a human pregnancy, which is about the time a woman may discover that she is pregnant.”

Though I’m not sure what the ratio or chances are of a given person having the Glut2 gene, there are 14 other transporter genes as well.

You can read the whole article here: Protein Makes It Possible For High Blood Glucose To Enter Embryonic Cells

• Scientists Produce Embryonic Stem Cells from Skin
• Study Links Diabetes and High Fructose Corn Syrup Found in Soda
• New Gene Implicated In Diabetes
• Lack of Sleep Affects Diabetic Health
• Just added: Simple and Customized Glucose Ranges
• Feeling Fine versus Being Fine–do high glucose numbers matter?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 13th, 2007 at 8:19 am and is filed under Diabetes Medication, Diabetes News, Diabetic Health, Food, Glucose Management.
.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.